Let's hope James Cameron's Thespbot 2000 technology works, because from the looks of how things are progressing on the SAG deal front, the sun could be setting on the Age of the Human Hollywood Actor.

A number of notable talk show hosts made the controversial choice to cross picket lines and not grow out a strike beard during last year's WGA strike, Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres among them.

After finally turning down the volume on Alan Rosenberg's bluesy twang, SAG leadership plans to return next week to relatively quiet — and hopefully swift — negotiations with the major studios.

SAG president Alan Rosenberg's final opportunity to preserve his strike-hungry executive director and negotiating committee fizzled this morning in Superior Court.

No wonder Alan Rosenberg's rejected restraining-order appeal yesterday included a few errors: Any lawyer moving to SAG squabbles from a career in right-wing crisis management would encounter a severe learning curve at some point.

SAG president Alan Rosenberg's ploy to halt contract talks and reinstate his closest strike-friendly ally could be going better, with a judge this afternoon rejecting his petition for a temporary restraining order.

Blues singer to sue for SAG exec's reinstatement. [The Wrap]

This whole SAG presidency thing may not be working out so well for Alan Rosenberg, but so what? His blues-career Plan B is taking off before our eyes — have a listen after the jump!

Rosenberg: Fired Doug Allen "too good" for SAG. [The Wrap]

Doug Allen avoids banishment after marathon 30-hour SAG meeting. [DML]

Conflicting reports emerged late Monday from SAG's emergency national board meeting, where at least one member says Doug Allen is out as the union's chief negotiator.

SAG's protracted pursuit of a strike authorization vote may end as early as tomorrow, with the bitter aftertaste of a secret awards blacklist lingering in an emergency meeting underway at union HQ.

We thought a fun way to keep track of where celebrities stand on the impending SAG strike would be with some printable holiday greeting cards!

A rumor that Twentieth Century Fox Television—producers of some of your most beloved stories, including 24, My Name is Earl, and Family Guy—would be switching over to an all-AFTRA format got this official response:

Hollywood awoke Tuesday to more graphic evidence of sectarian violence in the SAG ranks, with namecalling, dogma and even allegations of brainwashing feeding the union's race to strike-fueled self-destruction.

A sturdy cross-section of topline Hollywood talent from Tom Hanks to George Clooney to René Auberjonois today urged SAG leadership to back down from its '09 strike threat. Maybe even more noteworthy: Who's missing?

"Happy 2009 — let's take the year off," will come the refrain from SAG HQ next month, as they today announced Jan. 2 as the date strike authorization ballots go out to its 120,000 members.

So SAG's fucked. Wait—did we say "fucked?" There we go again—needless doomsday prophesying where Obaman cool-headedness is clearly required. What we meant to say is: "SAG's probably fucked." Yesterday brought a confluence of Pop Culture Doomsday events that not even a walrus blowing like Bird could have foretold:

Just days after we learned the kinda-sorta true details of a secret summit called by SAG president Alan Rosenberg and attended by the A-list dons of Hollywood's acting Cosa Nostra, tensions between the union and producers have reached a rolling boil. With 120,000 strike-authorization ballots being readied for mailing—each sealed individually by the scarred, arid tongue of Rosenberg himself—both sides have issued blistering written attacks accusing the other of the kind of selfishness typically associated with junket reporters asking innocuous questions of Philip Seymour Hoffman. First came a Rosenberg-penned missive on Thanksgiving eve, in which the blustery thespians' rights crusader rebuked producers for relying on that old "there's a gigantic recession coming" excuse:

Just when we thought nothing much had changed in the narcoleptic parallel universe of SAG contract negotiations, we're hearing now that the union's saber-rattlers are finally bringing the heavy weaponry to bear on their studio nemeses: A recent dinner hosting Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty and other influential legends reportedly gave the blessing for a crippling actor's strike. (UPDATE: Not at this meeting, anyway — Sharon Waxman has retracted her original story. More after the jump.)A more formal strike authorization will be sought from SAG's 120,000 members in the weeks ahead, but as Sharon Waxman hinted late Monday, when Hollywood royalty gathers secretly to help drop-kick the industry into another winter of chaos, what's really left to vote on?